I'm a longtime hunter, though fairly new to waterfowling. Is anyone on here a member of a hunting club that could share their experiences? I own some land in west-central Illinois where I'm from and am always trying to find ways to increase hunting opportunities for those in Illinois. I have the opportunity to buy what was at one time a world famous rod and gun club along the Illinois River (800 acres or so). I would love to organize a group of committed hunters to purchase this property and turn it into a top notch hunting club once again. Basically, they way I am thinking about it, I would need a group of about 20 hunters who could buy a membership/ownership interest in the club. Those 20 hunters would have exclusive rights to hunt the acreage and it would be organized and managed in a controlled way. The costs would be about $12,000 to $15,000 to buy-in and annual fees of $2,500 to $3,000. You would actually invest in the club and own about 5% of it for this amount. A person could sell it to someone else if they wanted to get out of it--probably at a profit even. This would be a professionally run club with a clubhouse and a manager to maintain the property. I know the costs aren't as cheap as going to public hunting grounds, but you end up owning part of the club, have a say in how it is run/managed, and where else can you get access to this much acreage to share with a close group of friends?

Does anyone have any experience with clubs like this? If this is something you are interested in, please let me know. I would love to hear your initial reactions. Feel free to criticize or shoot holes in it (so to speak) if you think it would never work. I just feel like there were so many of these rod and gun clubs in the early 1900s and it is a great loss that many of these are now gone. I'd like to work with other hunters to bring them back!

Could you lease the ground for like a trial basis, Belonged to a private club in Hennepin for over 15yrs and also helped run it. PM me with any other details you have Its not the old Snicarte island club is it.